The Buffalo Sabres chose Lemieux with the first pick of the second round (31st overall) on Saturday morning. He is the son of former NHL agitator extraordinaire Claude Lemieux.

Brendan, a 6-foot, 206-pound left winger, clearly felt slighted when he wasn't taken during Friday's first round, and says he'll use that memory as fuel for his career.

"I definitely expected to be a first-round pick," Lemieux told EJ Hradek during the TSN/NHLNetwork telecast. "They just gave one of the more fiery guys in the draft more fire."

Lemieux, 18, scored 27 goals, 26 assists and 53 points in 65 games with the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts. He also piled up a team-leading 145 penalty minutes. He then produced 7-3-10 in 11 playoff games.

In the annual Draft Preview published by The Hockey News, the scouting synopsis said of Lemieux, "has good offensive instincts to go with his belligerence."

Claude Lemieux was a pest and often played beyond the point of dirty. But he also was clutch. He was part of four Stanley Cup-winning teams and scored an amazing 19 game-winning playoff goals.

"I'm proud of the career that he had and I'm proud of the way he played and how hated he was," Brendan Lemieux said. "I want to be that guy that can step up in the playoffs. I want to come up big in the playoffs."

Sabres general manager Tim Murray said they projected Lemieux to be a late first-round pick. "We like the style of game he plays; it's a chippy, intimidating style," Murray said.

"But in saying that, he's not a one-dimensional player. He can score goals, he can shoot the puck, he goes to the net, he goes to the dirty areas. We like the whole package."

Lemieux didn't expect to be chosen by the Sabres because he thought he flunked his pre-draft interview. "I thought it was my worst interview."

Said Murray: "We thought it was outstanding. We made it uncomfortable for him and I thought he responded."

The Sabres stuck with NHL bloodlines with their first two picks. They drafted center Sam Reinhart, son of former NHL defenseman Paul Reinhart, with their first-round selection on Friday night.

And, on the sixth round, they continued to believe hockey genes matter; they took Michigan high school center Christopher Brown, the son of long-time NHLer Doug Brown.

The Sabres were very busy in Saturday's second and third rounds, making five selections and trade in barely an hour.

When the morning began, they had three second-round selections and one in the third round. But they traded the 39th overall pick to the Washington Capitals for picks 44 and 74.

Their day:

Second round

31st -- Brendan Lemieux, LW, Barrie (OHL)

44th -- Eric Cornel, C, Peterborough (OHL)

He has been inconsistent and must get a whole lot stronger before he'll make an impact in pro hockey.

49th -- Vaclav Karabacek, RW, Gatineau (QMJHL)

Third round

61st -- Jonas Johansson, G, Sweden

Big (6-4, 187) but also athletic. Murray has never seen him play; said scouts assured him he is athletic as well.

74th -- Brycen Martin, D, Swift Current (WHL)

Cornel was a borderline first-round pick to some draft "experts" because of his skill level (25-37-62 in 68 games). He'll certainly pass through Rochester on his way to Buffalo.

That's also true of Karabacek, a speedy, finesse winger who played for former Amerks coach Benoit Groulx in Gatineau.

Johansson played with the Brynas Junior team in Sweden. That's also where former Amerks goalie Jacob Markstrom played.

Martin is a puck-mover and The Hockey News scouting recap praises his first-pass ability. (Sounds like Amerks/Sabres D-man Mark Pysyk.) The recap also gives a demerit for his D-zone play.

Fifth round

Max Willman, LW, Massachusetts prep school

He's 19. Wasn't really on the radar after high school, but a year at prep school caught the attention of Brown University (he's headed there), as well as scouts.

Sixth round

Christopher Brown, C, Michigan high school

His father Doug played 854 NHL games and played on Detroit's Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1997 and 1998. His uncle, Greg, was an Amerks defenseman in the early 1990s and played 94 NHL games.

Chris is headed to USHL junior for a year, then to Boston College , where Greg is the associate coach for Jerry York.

Seventh round

Victor Olofsson, RW, Sweden

He's tiny by NHL standards, at 5-foot-7 and 157 pounds. Then again, Tyler Ennis is tiny, too. Piled up points with his Swedish junior team (32-21-53 in 44 games, but was pointless in 11 games with the big boys in the Swedish Elite league).

Murray's overview: "We added a lot of assets. They're either going to be Buffalo Sabres or they're going to allow us to get other Buffalo Sabres."

The goal was to swing for the fences, not find singles hitters, so they took a few chances on players who aren't necessarily polished but could end up being very good. "If they do hit," Murray said, "they do have an opportunity to play higher than your fourth line."

Staff writer:
Kevin Oklobzija covers Rochester’s two oldest professional sports teams, hockey’s Rochester Americans and baseball’s Rochester Red Wings. He has been at the rink for Amerks hockey since the 1985-86 season and, after providing backup Wings coverage for many years, is now the full-time beat writer. A native of Minnesota and a graduate of St. Cloud State University, Kevin arrived in Western New York in June of 1985 and never left. Apparently he likes it here. He still believes National Lampoon’s Vacation may be the best movie ever made.